Tuesday, December 29, 2009

State Memories Project: Texas

My most vivid memory from Texas is dark; too dark to be reproduced here, I think. So are some of the others--I've generally hit life nadirs in Texas. But here, I'll try to pick something positive.

Texas is where my friends and I would go when we wanted to get away from Leesville, Louisiana during my two years there. I recall one such instance where my friends and I wanted to see The Crying Game. Rest assured that wasn't going to make the multiplex in Vernon Parish, so we made it a part of a big Saturday: The Crying Game as a matinee, then Knicks at Rockets that night.

I was fortunate not to have been told the secret to The Crying Game before getting to the theater in Houston. Thing is, the movie would have been incredible without the secret--so much intrigue and double-think. But all of us were taken aback when that camera panned down Jaye Davidson's body. "No WAY!" was how my friend Michael described his thoughts. And as we left the theater, I said to my friends: "You're not going to believe this...but Patrick Ewing is actually a woman."

Then we grabbed a bite and made it to The Summit for the game, which was a fantastic one. It came down to Hakeem Olajuwon blocking a Greg Anthony coast-to-coast layup attempt as time expired. (And, looking at the box score, wow! 42 and 12 for Olajuwon, 20 and 15 for Ewing.) Can't get better than that--two really good teams playing a tight game.